HomeMy WebLinkAbout2019-04-05 1352 email porter1
Minyard, Brian
From:Paul Porter <Paul.Porter@arkansas.gov>
Sent:Friday, April 05, 2019 1:52 PM
To:Steve Harrelson (Steve@Harrelsonfirm.com)
Cc:Minyard, Brian
Subject:PU2909 Villa Marre National Register Nomination
Attachments:PU2909 Villa Marre.nr.pdf; DSC_0039.JPG; DSC_0009.JPG
Hi Steve,
Thank you again for your hospitality this morning and for the tour of the house. What a terrific place to live! As
promised, I attached a copy of the National Register Nomination for the house. It was listed in 1970, so the nomination
is a bit thin on the description. I’ll check with our National Register program coordinator Ralph Wilcox, to see what other
information he may have on the house in a red folder.
I was thinking more about the water infiltration issue and the interior water damage in the house. I attached two of the
photos I took for your reference about what I am going to describe next. One is looking out of the narrow hallway
upstairs that goes to that back bedroom overlooking the kitchen roof. The rolled roofing looks like it was installed
properly and goes part way up the wall to terminate under the flashing. What does look like a suspect point to me for
water to get in is how the gutters are installed. The gutters are integrated into the top of the brick cornice. In the other
photograph, the gutters are integrated into the wood cornice which projects out from the brick wall. You can see how
the two different designs come together on the corner above the north side door going into the corridor between the
kitchen and the study (smoking room?) in the second photograph. If there are breached seams in the bottoms of the
gutters where the sections meet, that would account for the water damage that has gotten all the way in down to the
basement through the brick wall. I’d be willing to bet money that is why you have water damage showing on the interior
in various places. I would recommend that when Bray Sheet Metal comes to do the work that they will find breached
seams in the bottoms of the gutters. Ask them if there is an additional water and ice shield that they can install under
the integrated gutter trays to help prevent water from infiltrating the brick walls if the metal gutter seams give way in
the future. Hopefully this would help minimize water running down the inside of the walls and migrating through to the
interior surfaces.
I sure hope Becky Witsell still has her notes and documentation of all the color work she did at Villa Marre. The stencils
you have are wonderful and even though they weren’t stored very well, their existence is quite valuable for doing paint
repairs.
Thank you again very much for your time this morning and it was great to meet you and your mom in person. I’m looking
forward to working with you on the repairs to the house!
Cheers,
Paul
Paul Porter
Technical Services Coordinator/Conservation Easement Coordinator
Arkansas Historic Preservation Program
a division of the Department of Arkansas Heritage
1100 North Street | Little Rock, AR 72201
office: 501.683.6672
fax: 501.324.9154
ArkansasPreservation.com
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